The goal of the proposed work is to study the interaction of the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons. Two applications, bodi involving SEM, are suggested. The first is to use SEM to study the interaction of actin filaments with microtubules assembled in a cell ftee system derived from Xenopus eggs. The second is to use SEM to analyze contractile rings (composed of actin and myosin-11) obtained from Xenopus oocytes by manual dissection of the rings from the oocyte.